Peltier Cold Rod:I have heard of the Peltier effectand would like to rig up an experiment to demonstrate it.I have a closed container where I need a Peltier rod with the cold Rod end inside the containerand the hot rod end outside the container.

Please, how could I set up such a thing.What materials would I need?And where would I get the materials (like bismuth). Thanks...Vern

AlphaNumeric

15th July 2007 - 08:50 PM

Peltiers are commerically available. A number of people in the overclocking community use them to acheive sub-zero CPU temperatures. I managed to blow up a few hundred pounds worth of computer equipment over the period of a few months using a 220W peltier and some very dodgy watercooling.

The effect is really weird to watch, one side gets so hot it begins to steam water and the other freezes a chunk of ice onto it!

(I can use copper and bismuth. But a bismuth rod 1/4" x 6" can cost $700. )

So I hope to find out what other metals can I use use. Thanks...Vern

Confused2

20th July 2007 - 11:27 AM

Bismuth? I suspect that was a historical accident .. the guy just happenned to have some of it so he used it.

I would start out with copper wire and iron wire. From memory .. when you try to use the Peltier effect to cool things the resistive heating in the 'cold' junction normally far outweighs the heating effect unless you use the sort of device Alaphanumeric suggests.

Somewhere there should be a list of 'potentials' for various metals so you can work out which would give the greatest voltage difference per degree difference - is it the same as work function? maybe someone else can comment.

Best wishes - C2.

killikaiti

10th December 2011 - 10:37 PM

im doing this project for the science fair i could use some help with dumbing down this question In a Peltier device using semiconductors, how does the flow of charge carriers (electrons or holes) compare to the flow of heat energy? and geting information and creating a hypothisis statment. i know my independent variable is the temp. and the dependent variable is the flow of charge. please help - thanks killi kaiti

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